Why we can stop worrying (a little) about the death of showrooming

As we lose retail stores, new services and models will rise to replace them.

For all the light and joy that the Internet brings to our lives, it’s killing things too. We know we’re losing our ability to relate to others like human beings or to focus or to be productive. Some are at least as worried that someday the retail shrines where we flock to gaze idly or prod at consumer products we kind of want, while telling salespeople “no, thanks, I’m just looking,” will finally meet their ends because of an ability to order whatever we need from Amazon.

In this dim view of the future, nothing—from peanut butter to books to an assembly-required bed—will be more than a handful of pixels until it’s at your house. You'll drown in waves of bubble wrap and cardboard, waiting to find out exactly how much you don’t like it (just like that date from OKCupid). If only you’d really patronized that furniture store instead of just sitting in one of its easy chairs while waiting for your friend to text you back, your newly ordered furniture wouldn’t be a condemned, dark hole facing the street.

We fret about how “showrooming” is forcing physical retail stores out of business, but the practice of showrooming is nowhere ready to die. Several companies are stepping forward with solutions that circumvent the top-heavy model of centrally positioning a big box store in every major town and city. Instead, we're seeing more flexible models for consumers. Both virtual and augmented reality are coming into play as ways to experience products without having to handle them. In some cases, this can be more convenient than our usual in-person sessions.

Eyeglasses and sunglasses have become the unusual heroes of the Showroom 2.0 movement. Companies that sell glasses like ditto.com and glasses.com have begun offering services that can import 3D models of your face and apply various types of headwear to them, requiring only the front-facing cameras in an iPad or computer.

Post-scan, the glasses.com app shows off the contours of my visage.

Glasses.com creates these renders themselves. The app offers a bundle of sunglasses to try on one's virtual face...

...in addition to a large range of eyeglasses. I can rotate my head side to side in every view, as well as slide the glasses up and down my nose.

A page for a particular pair of sunglasses will also show me three comparable pairs, modeled on my scanned face.

Glasses.com creates these renders themselves. The app offers a bundle of sunglasses to try on one's virtual face...

Post-scan, the glasses.com app shows off the contours of my visage.

...in addition to a large range of eyeglasses. I can rotate my head side to side in every view, as well as slide the glasses up and down my nose.

A page for a particular pair of sunglasses will also show me three comparable pairs, modeled on my scanned face.

In the glasses.com version of the process, users hold up an iPad in front of their face (or have a friend do so) while the app guides them through rotating their face from one side to the other. The app captures not only the width and height of a user’s face but its depth and even the shape of their nose as well. Within the app, users can slide 3D renders of glasses up and down their own noses to see what they look like at various degrees of cavalier.

This all happens within an app, so it’s hard for users to get an actual feel for the product. But the app does allow users to see and evaluate many pairs of glasses on their own face within a few seconds, a considerably faster process than trying on racks of glasses one at a time at the optometrist to find the ones that look good.

We could easily see this process extended to trying on clothes. Recall that body scanners have existed to generate clothing measurements for some time. If the ability to read that information from a tablet or smartphone’s camera could be translated, people could easily save themselves many days and many reams of cardboard and plastic shipping from the Internet as they find the constraints of person and garment don’t match.

Objects that go in your house are a bit trickier. Scanning a room to see, say, whether a bed frame or chair fits is harder than scanning a person’s face. One Dutch furniture company, Montis, has taken steps to solving this problem by creating an app that can project certain models of its furniture into 3D space.

The app requires printing out a set of two paper pages to use as a marker. The user lies the pages on the floor and then points an iPad’s camera at that spot. They can then see certain pieces of furniture projected into a room, taking up as much space as the real thing would.

One important caveat, though: a virtual showroom does wonders for a product's physicality but not a whole lot for its functionality or in-person feel.

Outside of virtual reality try-ons and demos, flipping the approach to online and physical retail implementations has a chance of being viable. Eyewear retailer Warby Parker has odes written to its smashing online success, despite the fact that its brand has never once set foot in a suburban mall.

The company slowly expanded its offerings and then presence, holding events for customers to try on products. Just recently, the company added several stores in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Oklahoma City, Chicago, and Miami as a supplement to its home try-on program. Backwards-sounding? Maybe a little. A shining beacon of hope for all of the storefronts we’re worried will stand empty in five years? Also maybe a little.

Most online retailers are noncommittal IRL. A pop-up shop is do-able, but an extensive leash still seems to make them skittish. For instance BaubleBar, an online retailer of jewelry, opened a full store in New York. But as of a few months ago, the space can only be visited by appointment.

Online retail as a support system for physical stores may never scale to the point of big box stores anchoring every major mall in America. But the importance of a physical retail presence, even a token one, doesn’t appear to have been lost entirely on businesses born without them.

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

58 Reader Comments

"Showrooming" always seemed a little dumb to me, I mean, I understand why persons do it, but I buy things on Amazon because they have the best price on the best SELECTION, not just a few SKUs created especially to sell in Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc, product lines specifically created with different configurations and bells and whistles so consumers couldn't directly pricematch one product to another.

I stopped shopping at B&M stores because they didn't have the electronics I wanted in stock, always. Sure, they had "A" television, GPU, or laptop that met a few of my needs, but never at the best price, never the specific one I wanted, and rarely did they have them in-stock at the time that I came by (and I used to drop by them a ~lot~.) I waste so much less time, energy, and dough this way. And I don't need annoying sales "help"!

In the future(!), everyone will finally figure out how to properly size themselves and take measurements thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Youtube videos that explain these relatively simple processes.

Salesfloors are a bit of a relic at this juncture. You do all your research before you go into a store and then you make your purchase online. There's really no reason to go to a store in the middle of that process.

Edit to add: all of my suits are bespoke and if I could find a good cobbler my shoes would be too. The sad reality is that once you're past Walmart pricing there's a world of difference between paying $300 for a suit you replace every year or two and paying $1500 for a suit that will last 10 to 20 years (or in the case of some of my grandfather's old suits I have appropriated over 70). So I get the human interaction and "need to feel," but for 90% of my purchases I simply don't need to see something in a showroom. Ultimately, I need to see it in my house.

This model of showrooming isn't going to work for everyone. It's one thing to use AR to see how a pair of sunglasses looks on a person, or how a particular piece of furniture will look in your living room, but some people actually want to physically touch these items.

A couple examples:1) Physically playing with a new laptop to see if the keyboard is any good, if the hinge is flimsy, etc.2) Actually sitting on that piece of furniture to make sure it's actually comfortable.

Part of the reason people go showrooming is to determine if something is utter garbage before buying, so they can avoid the whole mail-order RMA process.

I'm not going to be able to make a informed purchasing decision for a 4K TV by looking at it on my current TV/monitor. Same thing goes on for a laptop. I'm interested to buy one of the haswell win8 convertible released, but I won't be buying anything that I can't physically test first.

And while I bought glasses online with one of these photo uploading thing, I took the risk because I paid a fraction of B&M price. In the same way, I would only consider buying shoes online without trying them IRL first if it was half the price of retail or less.

The showroom is still very important for a lot of things. It's not going anywhere this decade and likely not the next one either.

Online there's a better selection and usually better prices. I buy a lot of stuff online, but only when I know exactly what I'm getting.

A lot of stuff you just need to touch and feel, though. Or physically try on. Those glasses may look cool, but does you hair get caught in the hinge or the earpiece? Did that clothing designer assume a "Medium" shirt is supposed to fit an A cup or a C cup? Are the sleeves sized to fit anorexic toothpick arms, or normal ones? Is the photo on the model retouched, pinned and tailored to her (probably)?

Is the picture and description even up to date? Especially with groceries, package sizes change (for the smaller) all the time. Does the fabric/wood/plastic smell like noxious chemicals?

An doctored photo application isn't going solve these issues for a while yet. Besides... is the app like those mirrors in the dressing room that are distorted so you look taller and skinnier?

I don't see show rooming going away completely. Many things work extremely well on an online storefront like books, music, many pieces of electronics (especially computer parts), most jewellery, etc.

However, how do you audition speakers? How do you try on a pair of shoes to make sure they don't hurt your feet? How do you know if the quality of the picture on that TV is good enough or if you should go up to the next model (is it enough to listen to the person online giving me their opinion)? How do I know how the keys on that piano are going to respond to my touch?

Don't even get me started on the complexity that is women's clothing (render all you like but fabric may not behave like that in reality).

There is a big difference between buying a Graphics Card (where you care mainly about technical specs) and buying something where the physical experience is important. I think a vehicle is a perfect example...you want to know how it feels, how easy it is to steer, how visibility is, does the location of the controls feel good, etc. Sure you can quantify those mathematically but it probably won't really give you a good idea of what to expect.

Buying another of the same on the other hand, online is an easy choice because you pretty much know exactly what you are getting.

Just try to remember, that if you go to a retail store to try something out before buying, and then decide to buy it afterwards, you should actually buy it in that store. Using the store as a showroom and then not spending money there is a huge part of why those stores are going away.

Interesting article. I run an ecommerce store for a business that also has a physical retail location. We have lots of great manufacturers images of products, and people still frequently ask you to take pictures to show them "the real thing."

We've done lots of videos on sizing, taking measurements, choosing the right type of product, etc, but in the end if the shopper was able to come to the retail store they could be sized perfectly in a fraction of the time. With that said the face and room modeling that some of these sites are doing is very impressive even if it might be a bit of a hassle to set up.

Just try to remember, that if you go to a retail store to try something out before buying, and then decide to buy it afterwards, you should actually buy it in that store. Using the store as a showroom and then not spending money there is a huge part of why those stores are going away.

Perhaps a different model is needed. Much smaller storefront, select products and smaller staff (ideally who actually know their products). You go to the store only to audition products, pay, and they ship them to you directly.

Just try to remember, that if you go to a retail store to try something out before buying, and then decide to buy it afterwards, you should actually buy it in that store. Using the store as a showroom and then not spending money there is a huge part of why those stores are going away.

Perhaps a different model is needed. Much smaller storefront, select products and smaller staff (ideally who actually know their products). You go to the store only to audition products, pay, and they ship them to you directly.

Didn't Gateway computers do that years ago? There was a store near me, they had everything you mentioned... minus the knowledgeable staff. That store went out of business fairly quickly.

Retail will not go away, but instead will evolve in such a manner as other retail industries have. For instance, its no coincidence that the exact same make/model/size product cannot be found elsewhere, and thus afford the retailer a low price guarantee. This type of behavior has been working well in certain retail sectors and will ultimately provide protection (to an extent) to said under threat retail chain.

I think what might be more managed is the locations in which some retail chains decide to open its doors at. I've already been observing several chain stores relocate following the commercial lease contract renew periods. Some choose smaller spaces while many others are choose more economically sound locations and not those prime locations.

In the future(!), everyone will finally figure out how to properly size themselves and take measurements thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Youtube videos that explain these relatively simple processes.

And in the mail you'll receive your poorly-constructed yet expensive clothing that was advertised as "Highest quality!", but because it was only a picture on a website you had no way of feeling it first-hand to see if it was actually any good.

This happens with more than just clothes too-- plenty of companies have figured out how to make products that look like they're well-built, yet are actually flimsy poorly-constructed crap. "Chrome-plated" plastic made to look like steel, thin-gauge aluminum that looks like heavy-gauge metal, cheap anodizing instead of powder coating, low-grade fasteners... the list goes on forever.

One thing I will probably never buy online is clothing, purely because of the huge variations in sizing.

If I try on 3 different 'large' shirts, I can guarantee that they'll all fit me differently. And that's in the same store, not in 3 different stores!

Shirts etc should not be in size M, L, XL etc.They should not be sold as 'fits a 42" chest' - because that's open to whims of the designer, and if they are going for a tight or loose fit.

Instead they should be sold as 'this garment measures x inches from here to here' and the buyer then chooses the dimensions according to their own physical size and if you want the shirt to be tight or loose.

So until we have some accurate and consistent (and honest!) sizing of clothes, I'm very reluctant to buy clothes over the Internet

Just try to remember, that if you go to a retail store to try something out before buying, and then decide to buy it afterwards, you should actually buy it in that store. Using the store as a showroom and then not spending money there is a huge part of why those stores are going away.

Perhaps a different model is needed. Much smaller storefront, select products and smaller staff (ideally who actually know their products). You go to the store only to audition products, pay, and they ship them to you directly.

Didn't Gateway computers do that years ago? There was a store near me, they had everything you mentioned... minus the knowledgeable staff. That store went out of business fairly quickly.

I think Apple followed in their footsteps by opening up retail stores. Next thing you know, Microsoft will probably start opening up retail stores.

We aren't in an age yet where the sensation of personal comfort and more importantly its absence can be virtualized.

No, but you can benefit from the experiences of others... Bypassing the 1-star product that everyone hates, and instead buying the slightly more expensive 5-star model, with 99% of people saying its the greatest thing, ever.

I can understand needing some first-hand experience if you have unusual requirements, but for all of us fairly average human beings, those 10,000 reviews are a pretty good indication.

I think eventually big box stores will become showrooms that charge you for access and don't actually sell anything. Instead they will use the space to make more displays for customers to test out products that they will later buy online. People want freedom to buy a product at the lowest price and you cannot stop that, but you can stop letting them sit in that brand new chair for free.

People will always need to touch certain items first list chairs, couches, beds, etc, to know if it is right for them. You cannot visualize that.

Also, when it comes to sound systems and TV's, you still need to experience that first hand. Visualizing that through your own speakers and monitor just lowers the quality to whatever monitor and sound system you currently have.

In the future(!), everyone will finally figure out how to properly size themselves and take measurements thanks to the hundreds of thousands of Youtube videos that explain these relatively simple processes.

Salesfloors are a bit of a relic at this juncture. You do all your research before you go into a store and then you make your purchase online. There's really no reason to go to a store in the middle of that process.

Edit to add: all of my suits are bespoke and if I could find a good cobbler my shoes would be too. The sad reality is that once you're past Walmart pricing there's a world of difference between paying $300 for a suit you replace every year or two and paying $1500 for a suit that will last 10 to 20 years (or in the case of some of my grandfather's old suits I have appropriated over 70). So I get the human interaction and "need to feel," but for 90% of my purchases I simply don't need to see something in a showroom. Ultimately, I need to see it in my house.

One thing that distorts a lot of people's idea of clothing sizes is many if not most brands do vanity sizing, running slightly different from what should be standard to flatter the buyer, while it is pretty much universally implying they are skinnier than they are. It not only varies widely between brands, many brands are not even consistent between their own lines. It use to only be a issue with the abstract sizes like size 1 or small, but more recently they will even do it when it is marked in inches or centimeters.

A listening test is a terrible way to choose speakers. Numbers like watts, ohms, frequency response and T.H.D. are far more accurate, and lend to direct comparisons between various units without subjective humans in the middle. A listening test can be pretty easily rigged, while those advertised numbers have to stand up to scrutiny.

Retail will not go away, but instead will evolve in such a manner as other retail industries have. For instance, its no coincidence that the exact same make/model/size product cannot be found elsewhere, and thus afford the retailer a low price guarantee. This type of behavior has been working well in certain retail sectors and will ultimately provide protection (to an extent) to said under threat retail chain.

I think what might be more managed is the locations in which some retail chains decide to open its doors at. I've already been observing several chain stores relocate following the commercial lease contract renew periods. Some choose smaller spaces while many others are choose more economically sound locations and not those prime locations.

Running a retail store here in the US can be an expensive proposition. Quality staff, high cleaning standards and well-stocked shelves take a lot of expensive manpower, but convincing managers that it is necessary is near impossible. I hate to use the Apple Store example, but it is a shining example of what you can accomplish with well paid and trained staff. Stores like Best Buy struggle because they don't have the staff to stock or clean properly, they are either too focused on selling you 'something' or trying to find a customer who will buy something to care about window shoppers, not paid enough to care, and not trained enough to answer any but the most rudimentary of questions. Most retail stores had their business models wrecked in the 80's when they started embracing the race to the bottom economic model. It really only works when you have a near monopoly on whatever you're selling. Like WalMart.

And in the mail you'll receive your poorly-constructed yet expensive clothing that was advertised as "Highest quality!", but because it was only a picture on a website you had no way of feeling it first-hand to see if it was actually any good.

Instead of paying attention to advertising copy-print puffery, you should read the specs, instead... Weight of the item, thread count, percentage of each material, etc., will give you an extremely good idea what you're buying... Better, in fact, than buying them in the store, sealed in plastic.

I can buy "1000 thread count" sheets from the back of a guy's truck on a street corner for $30 (seriously). Are you going to tell me that they're the same quality as these? Why should I believe the marketing of the former, when I know first-hand that the quality of the latter is superior?

And how much does a good USB thumb drive weigh, anyways? I bought a Corsair Survivor because I could feel it in my hands and see for myself that it wasn't a flimsy piece of shit like most "rugged" thumb drives tend to be.

"Read the specs" is a poor substitute for handling something in person, unless you're buying a new video card.

A listening test is a terrible way to choose speakers. Numbers like watts, ohms, frequency response and T.H.D. are far more accurate, and lend to direct comparisons between various units without subjective humans in the middle. A listening test can be pretty easily rigged, while those advertised numbers have to stand up to scrutiny.

Not to mention that speakers won't sound even vaguely similar in your room to what they did in the showroom. There are lots of on-line only speaker manufacturers like this: http://www.axiomaudio.com/?utm_source=1 ... Mgod7x0AcA that do a great job with no showroom. I haven't bought speakers from a b&m store in years.

Aside from the awesome convenience of delivery to my door, the main reason I mostly( in some cases I do buy local to support worthy businesses ) buy from Amazon, etc. is state sales tax. You can say what you like about taxes being needed to keep the lights on, but I pay tax on almost everything imaginable as it is. To pay 10%+ in many states for the privilege of supporting the economy is a kick in the balls I don't need. I don't buy Genuine Llama-fur seat covers for my fictional $100K sports car, I buy tools, I buy food and clothing, I buy auto parts, I buy a range of materials to both live and make a living. The only 'luxury' items I really buy are books. I have a deep history / art fetish.

Sales tax is a rip-off and should be done away with excepting people buying true luxury items, if a sales tax must exist. Sadly, the tax-free benefit is on its way out as the States are finally going to soak everyone for Internet purchases. It was great while it lasted.

If businesses want to stop "showrooming" they ought to ... have items in stock! Many times I take a fistfull of cold, hard cash into the showroom, wanting to depart with a product, only to be bitterly disappointed to see a display item that I can't actually purchase.

BTW - 'this garment measures x inches from here to here' - funny story about this that shows the folly of even using inches for clothes, and showrooming - so I used to be able to wear Levi's 34-inch waist jeans. A few years ago, Levi's cut about an inch out of the waist of their jeans and I could no longer wear them. I held up the old and new pairs, and it was obvious the new ones are smaller in the waist. So I had to start ordering size 35 jeans online because no stores carry odd-size jeans. So I can't buy jeans locally even if I want to.

I can buy "1000 thread count" sheets from the back of a guy's truck on a street corner for $30 (seriously). Are you going to tell me that they're the same quality as these? Why should I believe the marketing of the former, when I know first-hand that the quality of the latter is superior?

First rule of money is NOT buying out the back of a truck. You should have learned that when you were 9 years old. You want a seller that's going to be around long enough that they'll have to face the class-action lawsuit if they're blatantly mislabeling their products. But that's all completely orthogonal to the topic...

The upshot is yes, you should believe the numbers, far more than some up-scale merchant's claims. If they can't tell you why they product is superior to another with identical specs, that's because it isn't, and there's a lot of money in it for them to lie to you. The biggest mistake I see are people buying a far more expensive product, or a name brand, just assuming it must be better quality, while the opposite is more often true.

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"Read the specs" is a poor substitute for handling something in person, unless you're buying a new video card.

No, it works very, very well for the vast majority of items people buy... More often, people are fooled by "handling something in person", particularly a box with a lot of extra space or weight, while the specs actually have to tell you the truth.

If they can't tell you why they product is superior to another with identical specs, that's because it isn't, and there's a lot of money in it for them to lie to you.

The skill of a great seamstress isn't something that you can quantify in a spec sheet, but it is something that you can experience when you feel a product in your hands. 2 suits (or sheets, or curtains) can have identical specs and be vastly different in terms of quality.

Here's a real-life example that I just experienced: I wanted to buy a nice pair of shoes, and I liked the looks of a pair each from Allen Edmonds and the New York Boot Company. Both companies are well-reviewed. Both list all manner of specifications for their leather and construction techniques. I was set on the NYBC shoes and I was going to order them online when I happened to see a pair at Nordstroms; I picked them up and lost interest immediately. What looked like nice rich full leather was more like a plasticy thin veneer, and the whole shoe felt cheap and showed an obvious lack of craftsmanship. I bought the AE shoes a week later and I've been happy ever since.

Again-- if you're buying camera lenses, video cards, or tires for your car then specs are great. But for tons of other products you're almost always better off feeling something in your hands first.

I wish we had micro-payments on the internet. I'd like to do a quick video-chat consultation with some impartial expert or knowledgeable consumer, when about to buy sunglasses or a smart-phone or something else online, and pay them maybe 50 cents for a few minutes of their time. Then I buy the item online. No need to go to a showroom.

We’re at least as worried that someday the retail shrines where we can flock to gaze idly or prod at consumer products we kind of want while telling salespeople “no, thanks, I’m just looking” will finally meet their ends at the hands of our tendency to just order whatever we need from Amazon.

We're most certainly not. B&M stores are going the way of the dodo, and deservedly so. Poor product availability, incompetent (because they usually know less than myself about technology, due to lacking education and experience) and dishonest (because that's in their interest) sales people, inconvenient shopping hours (around 12.30 a.m. works best for me), higher prices, the need to lug the merchandise home myself, are all insurmountable reasons for why stores will always be a distant second best to the Internet.

Thinking that you know quality best when you check it yourself is only a delusion. You are not an expert in everything. Online reviews, return guarantees, known online vendors, are a much more promising way to find products of reliable quality.

isn't something that you can quantify in a spec sheet, but it is something that you can experience when you feel a product in your hands.

Sounds like you're particularly susceptible to the placebo effect. There's a reason the stores with the best ambiance also have the highest priced products, even though you can find exact copies for a fraction of the price.

The placebo effect is very real... Every bit as real as all these "intangible" things you can "feel", but aren't actually differences that can be reflected in the specs of the product.

We need showrooms for now, because some things, especially new technology are very hard to evaluate without them. Manufacturers actively make this problem worse by creating inaccurate or completely meaningless metrics to sell their products, like TVs with infinite contrast ratios.

The best way to buy a TV is to go look for yourself. Similarly, my fiancee thought the surface RT looked really neat, but was dissuaded once she tried the keyboard. My parents bought a tablet without trying it, and it turns out they hate tablets. Basically, I think you need showrooms where the choice is one of taste, comfort, and fit rather than a comparison of sheer technical merits. I think that showrooms will just grow increasingly attached to stores that draw customers for necessities like clothes and food or serve a specific audience. So, no more Best Buy, but plenty of Staples and Targets.

I said for now though, because home fabrication could make a lot of this moot in the future.

A listening test is a terrible way to choose speakers. Numbers like watts, ohms, frequency response and T.H.D. are far more accurate, and lend to direct comparisons between various units without subjective humans in the middle. A listening test can be pretty easily rigged, while those advertised numbers have to stand up to scrutiny.

If you can hear the difference between two speakers with identical specs, you're certainly not human. Instead, you'll be judging the acoustics of their showroom, their amplifier, how much you like their EQ settings and their selection of sample music. In other words, a listening test will give you lots of information about everything EXCEPT the performance of the speakers.

If you can hear the difference between two speakers with identical specs, you're certainly not human. Instead, you'll be judging the acoustics of their showroom, their amplifier, how much you like their EQ settings and their selection of sample music. In other words, a listening test will give you lots of information about everything EXCEPT the performance of the speakers.

I hope we're assuming an A-B test between speakers in the same room.And just why would you use the showroom's sample music?